Human Rights and Transnational Solidarity in Cold War Latin America

1. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Transnational Latin American Solidarity, and the United States during the Cold War

2 1 1 Margaret Power In June 1958, Carlos Padilla Pérez, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, addressed a gathering of Argentines organized by the Amigos pro Libertad de Puerto Rico in Buenos Aires. He thanked them, his “fellow citizens of Our América,” for their solidarity and evoked the image of a shared history and a common heritage. Just as the Argentines “crossed the Andes in pursuit of the enemies of freedom” during the wars of independence in the 1800s, so, too, did Puerto Ricans join the continental fight against Spanish colonialism. The Puerto Rican general Antonio Valero de Bernabe “fought for the independence of Mexico” and then hastened to continue the battle against Spanish colonialism alongside “the Liberator Bolivar in whose army he achieved positions of distinction.” Recognizing that the historical moment has changed—“the patriotic armies are no longer intertwined along the paths of Our América as they once were”—Padilla nonetheless urged Argentines to support Puerto Rico’s ongoing struggle against colonialism, now directed against the United States. Above all, he emphasized that Puerto Rico The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Transnational Latin American Solidarity, and the United States during the Cold War 2 2 M a r g a r e t P o w e r is part of Latin America and that the U.S. occupation of the island nation represents a threat to the entire region. “[Freedom of Puerto Rico] is of critical importance to each of you because the United States threatens to extend the colonial regime that it has imposed on Puerto Rico under the name of the ‘free associated state’ over all the peoples of Our America. We are conscious . . . that as long as Puerto Rico awaits its freedom and is prevented from exercising its powers as a sovereign people, then the goal of unity that we pursue is blocked because it prevents us from joining the Latin American family.”1 Puerto Rico became a U.S. colony in 1898, following the Spanish-American War. In order to ensure its control of the island, the U.S. Congress passed the Foraker Act in 1900 and the Jones Act in 1917. The Foraker Act ended U.S. military rule in Puerto Rico and established a civilian government, with North American governors appointed by the United States, while the Jones Act made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens.2 By and large, the Puerto Rican response to these acts was muted. During the first three decades of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico, various political figures and parties called for independence. However, their demands, weakened by internecine political fights and the absence of a unified political strategy, were ineffective. Pedro Albizu Campos’s ascension to secretary general of the Nationalist Party in 1930 radically altered the situation.3 Under his leadership, the Nationalist Party transformed what had been inchoate dreams for independence into a determined fight to actually achieve it. The Nationalist Party did not advocate either capitalism or socialism, and, despite allegations to the contrary, the party was not fascist.4 Many in the party, including Albizu Campos, were fervent Catholics.5 However, the glue that held the party together was the desire to establish Puerto Rico as a sovereign nation, not agreement as to what economic system they would implement once independence was achieved. Nationalists defined Puerto Rico as part of the “Latin American family” and sought a sovereignty anchored in the joint history and the future of what they perceived to be a shared transregional reality. They identified with the former colonies of Spain, now independent republics, because they shared a common language, culture, religion, and history. They also confronted the same enemy: the United States. The Nationalist Party understood that Puerto Rico was a small Antillean nation confronting a formidable imperial power in the region. In order to strengthen efforts to end U.S. colonialism, the Nationalists consciously sought—and received—solidarity from democratic, leftist, anticolonial, and anti-imperialist individuals, organizations, and governments across Latin America. The Nationalist Party ceased to participate in elections in the 1930s, which T h e P u e r t o R i c a n N a t i o n a l i s t P a r t y 2 3 has made it difficult to gauge concretely what percentage of the Puerto Rican population belonged to or supported it. It is also a...